Sorry if I woke you.”
“Not at all. I sleep very good.” He wasn’t about to return the deputy’s kindness with complaints. Alexei felt his stomach rumble.
Logan walked to the front window and twisted the cord that opened the blinds. Sunlight streamed into the room. The street outside was covered in a blanket of snow. A few people walked past the window, long, colorful boards in their hands. “Stella should be here any minute with your breakfast.”
If breakfast was as good as his dinner had been, Alexei wasn’t sure why there weren’t more people in jail. He felt unaccountably cheerful. It made no sense. He was sitting in a small jail, waiting to be taken to a larger jail where he would most likely be interrogated and potentially deported to a place where everyone would want him dead.
Yet, he felt a sense of peace he’d not felt in forever. He was going to do the right thing. He was going to bring down Pushkin, but in the proper way, in the way that would have made his family proud.
“Is the FBI still coming?” Alexei suddenly wanted to get started.
He was eager to begin this new life he’d found.
“Yes. They’re driving in, though. The airports in Colorado Springs and Denver closed. There’s an ice storm. We’re good here, but they’re going to have to fly into Albuquerque and drive up from there. I hope they know how to drive in the mountains. I doubt they’re going to get here until tonight.”
Patience. He would have to be patient. Alexei nodded. “It is good.
Is sheriff indisposable?”
Logan’s face went slack, his jaw open. “Huh?” He would really have to work on his English. He searched for the words. “He is working on other things?”
“Oh, yes. He’s helping out with the setup this morning. The finals of the snowboarding competition take place on the mountain today.
We’re a real small town. Everyone has to help. This festival is our biggest event of the year.”
The door flew open, and a small, well-wrapped person stumbled inside. At first, all Alexei could see was a bright blue coat and a plastic bag. Logan rushed to the door and managed to catch the visitor before she went tumbling.
“Hey!” a soft voice fluttered as the woman in the coat was helped to balance by the deputy. “Sorry, Logan. I slipped on the ice. It’s getting bad out there. I hope it doesn’t hurt the festival. Stella sent me with your order.”
“Holly Lang! Everyone’s been looking for you. Damn it, where have you been?” Logan took the bag from her hands, frowning at her.
Holly. Alexei wished the floor would open up underneath him and swallow him whole. Sweet, sexy Holly was here, and he was behind bars. It wasn’t the way he wanted her to see him. Oh, he knew there was no way he could have any sort of a relationship with her, but she’d flirted with him and shown him her kind nature.
She shrugged out of her coat and stomped her boots on the mat in front of the door to get the snow off them. Her pretty green eyes were on Logan as she replied. “My evil ex managed to forget to tell me Nicky was going on a retreat with his high school band. Jerk. I only get to see him every other week. He knows how far I have to drive, but does he call?” Her face was tight for a moment, but she smiled, obviously throwing off her anger. “But I got to talk to him on the phone. He’s doing so well. He made the honor roll.”
“That’s great. While you were gone, two people died and there was a shooting and a stolen painting, and guess who has the key to the mystery?”
Holly had gone very still. “Died?”
“Yep, murders. It’s been a regular CSI episode around here, except without the bad jokes. Every time I tried to make one, or dramatically take off my sunglasses, Sheriff slapped me upside the head.”
“I’m about to do the same thing, Logan. Who got killed? Dear god, why didn’t someone tell me? Stella was crying when I got in today.” Holly looked like she was about to cry, too. It ate at Alexei that he’d had a hand in that.
Logan placed his hands on her shoulders. “It was a tourist.
Everyone in town is fine. And Stella’s been crying a lot lately. My moms think she’s going through the change. I don’t know what that means. I try to avoid all talk about feminine parts with my moms.”
“So two tourists died?”
“One tourist, and some Russian dude who was trying to kill Jen and Callie.”
“Oh, my god! I leave for twenty-four hours and this is what happens? I think I met the Russian guy. He seemed so nice.”
“It was not me,” Alexei said. “It was partner, Ivan. He was not so nice.”
Holly turned, noticing him for the first time. “Hello.” Her voice sounded awfully small now that she realized she wasn’t alone with Logan.
“Hello.”
“I remember you from the diner the other day. You took the Farley twins out. They couldn’t stop talking about how nice you were.” She smiled at him, her face lighting up. “What did you do?
Jaywalking? Nate can come up with a lot of reasons to toss a tourist in the clink, but usually it’s just because he’s in a foul mood. I’m afraid our sheriff is a bit of a character. He only narrowly avoided losing to a rubber duck in the last election. What was your name again?” Logan gestured to the cell Alexei stood in. “That’s Alex Something Russian. He’s a member of the Russian mob, and he’s looking for a painting his boss had Jen’s old boss steal for him.”
“Really? So he’s an actual criminal?” Holly looked between the deputy and Alexei as though trying to discern if someone was joking.
“Yeah, but it seems he’s reformed. He took out the other fellow and saved Callie and Jen and Callie’s baby.” Holly’s startled shout echoed though the small building. “Callie’s pregnant? Did I miss a newsletter? Damn it. I hate not having a phone. I had to use the Evil Ex’s to talk to Nicky. The minute I can afford it, I’m getting a cell phone.” Alexei’s attention shifted. There was a small group of men walking across the street. He couldn’t see them clearly yet, but they stood out. While everyone else was casual, there was a certain formality about these men that had Alexei staring. They wore black coats in a sea of colorful, fun parkas.
Logan continued to talk to Holly, poking at her like an annoying younger brother. “Yes, that would have been helpful since you’re the one who knows who has the painting everyone is looking for.” A cold chill went through Alexei’s body. Was that? Dear god, that looked like Luka. Luka was one of Pushkin’s top men.
“I do?”
Luka turned and pointed at the same building that housed Alexei.
Bile bit at the back of his throat. The phone. His phone had gone off all night. It hadn’t bothered Logan, but the trill had awoken Alexei several times.
Logan pointed toward the cell. “This guy came to town looking for a stolen painting. Apparently Jen’s boss in Dallas hid it. It’s behind one of the paintings Jen gave you to sell. The one for Rachel.
You sold it to someone, but we can’t read the receipt.”
Now Alexei could see that Luka had two other men with him, Nikolai, Luka’s brother, and Pushkin himself. His hands tightened around the bars. Pushkin had come after the painting. Alexei knew Ivan had called in and told Luka where they were going, but he’d never imagined that Dimitri Pushkin would come himself.
“Oh, well, that was—”
“Is that my food?” Alexei interrupted them with a short bark. He had seconds to decide what to do. A plan flashed through his brain. It was probably a terrible plan, but it was all he could come up with.
The three men were moving with purpose toward the office. There was no time. If they walked in, they would simply kill anyone in their way. At least this way they had a chance.